The Building Sheriff - the Uk's No. 1 Building Price Guide and Advice Site

Average Labour Cost/Price to Fit/Install a Sun Tube/Tunnel

To clarify the following prices it is recommended that you read the article in the INFORMATION box below the PRICES…(These prices are based on a tradesman’s rate of £150.00 per day and a labourer if required at £100.00 per day. This includes the cost of buying and collecting any materials, dumping any waste if necessary and any incidental materials they will need. The minimum price will usually be for a half day)

Rigid tube assemblies for flat roofs cost between £230 and £600 depending on their diameter.

Job 1Fit a 350mm diameter flat roof unit. This will take 1 man a day so that’s labour ……..£150, materials…….£300,

£450.00

Job 2Fit a rigid tube unit in your main roof with it’s light source on the landing.This will take 2 men a day ……….£250, scaffolding………£250, materials assuming an extra 2 metres of tube…….£325

£825.00

Job 3Fit a flexible tube unit on your main roof with the light emerging downstairs with boxed in tubing.This will take 2 men 2 days ………£500, scaffolding………£250, materials assuming an extra 5 metres of tube and boxing………£320

A Price Guide and Information Sheet on Fitting and Installing a Sun Tube

To be honest, the first one I fitted was out of desperation. I was selling a house, all the extensions I’d added meant that there was no longer a landing window and it was like the black hole of Calcutta at the top of the stairs. The sun tube I fitted was a 250mm diameter flexible affair.

I probably would have just settled for leaving the upstairs light on during viewings but the snake oil salesman, sorry the agent, went on and on about how great sun tubes were, so I caved in.

And it was! I was very impressed I have to say! Alright it wasn’t Blackpool illuminations but it made a heck of a difference. Knowing what I know now, if I’d splashed out another paltry £50, I could have put a big old rigid one in.

What are sun tubes then?Basically a plastic dome on your roof, which collects the sunlight. This is connected by tubing to a plastic diffuser (which can be double glazed) in the ceiling, which is where the sunlight eventually emerges a billionth of a second later. The tubes are coated internally with the most reflective substance known to man, (the same kind of stuff the use on One Direction’s teeth), can be flexible or rigid (the rigid chappies will tell you that theirs are best) and are from 250mm to more than 500mm in diameter.

That’s it, once it’s installed, it costs nothing, nada, nowt, rien, to run. There’s no electric bill to pay, the planet can breathe a sigh of relief, the ice caps will re establish themselves and Jeremy Clarkson will have to find another contentious subject to bang on about.

It is possible to produce light downstairs but there may be a bit of “boxing in” of the tubes to undertake and it might be impossible to site a diffuser in the middle of a ground floor room ceiling. It surely goes without saying that the wider the tube you fit, the more light you get.